Elizabeth Starts Again with a Little Taste of Honey by Ion Corcos

Elizabeth Starts Again With a Little Taste of Honey

She wears a slim dress over her bruise, changes her name
to Beth, reads the Bible over and over, to find the words of passion
ministers shout on Christian stations. There are lots of angry lines
that don’t inspire her. It makes her want to clean mould off the walls,
find a man called David, be on God’s side. But she doesn’t want war.

She goes to church on Sunday, her hair pulled out of her mind,
but walks out early, hearing the same thing. Later at the mall
she can’t hide her pain, limps along. Friends whisper she is a witch,
makes bad things happen. That she is with a good, moral man;
she wears too many colourful clothes, wants to climb mountains.

Tries to be herself, but it’s a small town. Even in the big city
she stands out. She races out of a pet shop after letting all the birds out;
doesn’t look behind. Not all fly away, but the ones that do follow her,
green and yellow bodies swoop in her wake, beautiful, like she is a queen.
She has left love behind, the stones that are still thrown at women.

Ion Corcos has been published in Axolotl, Bitterzoet, Every Writer and Ishaan Literary Review. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee. He is currently travelling indefinitely with his partner, Lisa. He is also working on his first poetry collection, Like Clouds, and a chapbook inspired by Greece. Ion’s website is ioncorcos.wordpress.com